Will Bruce Springsteen Ever Downsize to (Gulp) Mere Two-Hour Shows?

SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT
Performing in
July at the AccorHotels Arena, in Paris.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

The first time I interviewed Bruce Springsteen for *V.F.’*s October cover story, in Gothenburg, Sweden, it was the day after he had played the second-longest concert of his career, which lasted just a minute or two shy of four hours. That was in June. Since then, two more recent concerts—his September 7 show at Citizens Bank Park, in Philadelphia, and his August 30 show at MetLife Stadium, in his native New Jersey—have muscled into the No. 2 and No. 3 slots, clocking in at a little over four hours, shorter only than a concert he played in Helsinki in the summer of 2012.

The Gothenburg concert, Springsteen told me, was not super-long by design. Rather, he said, he was “in search of losing myself to the music,” a search that entailed—though this didn’t register to anyone in the audience—a bit of mental struggle. “The middle of the show was very dark,” he said. “We did ‘Death to My Hometown,’ ‘My Hometown,’ ‘The River,’ ‘Youngstown,’ ‘Johnny 99,’ ‘41 Shots’—we did ’em all in a row. So the center of the show got very dark. And then your job is to turn it, so it comes back up towards the end. And then, suddenly, you’re playing the hits!”

I asked Springsteen if he was aware, as the minutes ticked by, that he was approaching a historical length. The answer: sort of. “At the time, I was like, ‘I know this is happening, but, well, there’s nothing I can do about it,’” he said. “I’m following the breadcrumbs at that point.”

VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen: Growin’ Up

Springsteen turns 67 on September 23, remains extraordinarily fit, and has no imminent plans to scale back his shows, or, heaven forfend, retire. For goodness’ sake, he has just announced that his current tour will resume in Australia and New Zealand this winter. But his age does beg the question: At what point, if any, will he scale back? Some years ago, I put a similar question to the Edge, the guitarist for another stadium-commanding act, U2: Would his band ever consider dialing things down, doing smaller tours of smaller shows for smaller audiences? The Edge’s response was succinct and immediate. “We’re just not designed for that twilight phase,” he said.

I told this story to Springsteen, who received it with a chuckle. “I mean, I look at it like I’m built for that twilight phase,” he said. “I plan to roll on into the twilight. I don’t have a problem with that at all.”

“But rolling on,” I said, “might mean doing just a two-hour show.”

“I don’t know what it’ll mean,” Springsteen said. “It may mean there’s nothing wrong with a two-hour show. A two-hour show’s just fine, you know? I wouldn’t have a problem doing one.”

I couldn’t resist teasing him. “I don’t believe you,” I said.

“Maybe now I would,” he conceded. “But my take is, like I said, I’m just following the breadcrumbs and seeing where they take us. So, I don’t have a problem bouncing in between a lot of different arenas and venues. I’ll simply do it as long as it brings me joy.”